


A Moment In The Light

by herwhiteknight



Series: 365 Days of Sarah/Cosima [28]
Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Comfort, Cosima is some kind of Space Entity, F/F, Family Bonding, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Hair Braiding, Human Astral, Spiritual, Stars, Supernatural Elements, Vessel 'verse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-12
Updated: 2017-07-12
Packaged: 2018-12-01 08:18:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11482371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/herwhiteknight/pseuds/herwhiteknight
Summary: Cosima and Kira spend some quality bonding time together.





	A Moment In The Light

**Author's Note:**

> Set sometime after "Whenever Stars Go Down".
> 
> Day 29 of 365.

“You’re weird here,” Kira comments as she hangs upside-down off of the couch, staring down at Cosima who’s sprawled out on the floor, staring up at the ceiling.

“Kira,” Sarah admonishes lightly, nudging Cosima with her foot as she sits next to Kira on the remaining space of the couch, “Sorry love,” she sighs, “Kids, y’know?”

Cosima laughs in reply, reaching blindly for Sarah’s tapping toes and wrapping her her fingers around them once located. “I don’t know, actually. Other than what you guys have taught me, that is.”

Sarah _pffts_ and Cosima lifts her head upwards to catch Sarah’s eyeroll. “We’re far from normal, Cos,” she explains when she catches Cosima’s eye.

“Oh please!” Cosima pushes herself up off the floor with ease and settles into her usual comfort position - knees up, arms wrapped around her shins. “ _You’re_ not normal? C’mon.” She shakes her head with a grin, traces an absent pattern along her forearm, which Sarah notes as her favourite constellation, Cephus, and then pauses. “You shouldn’t talk,” she smirks, closes her eyes momentarily and _focuses._

Both Sarah and Kira stare as Cosima glows, the light pulsing bright momentarily before fading, leaving everything seemingly unchanged except -

“Auntie Cosima!” Kira squeals excitedly, rolling off the couch in a loud thump as she scampers into Cosima’s lap, “Your hair! Oh it’s so pretty!” She puts her hands on the crown of Cosima’s head, and Cosima drops her head obligingly, letting the raven locks fall forward in a curtain, exposing the blonde streak near the nape of her neck.

“Hm, that looks familiar,” Mrs. S looks over from where she’s sitting at the kitchen table with a book and a pot of tea.

“Does it?” Cosima asks, lifting her head so she could glance back and forth between Mrs. S and Sarah, who’s shaking her head and frowning slightly.

“Oh indeed,” Mrs. S replies, “Sarah had quite the wild… streak, back in her early years, she did.”

“It was a good look, alright?” Sarah growls stubbornly before shooting a look over at where Cosima and Kira and settled on the floor, “Better on you though,” she shrugs, like she trying to be even a modicum of _chill_ , despite the fact that she _has_ to know by now that Cosima can feel her embarrassed, giddy blush in her heart anyways.

“Auntie Cosima,” Kira bounces slightly to bring Cosima’s attention back onto her, like she knows that practically _everything else_ becomes invisible whenever Cosima and Sarah lock eyes.

Which, well, is absolutely true. _Tell me later about that wild streak,_ Cosima sends Sarah’s way before tearing her gaze and turning to Kira. “What’s up, hon?” she grins, combing her fingers gently through Kira’s hair, absently twisting some strands together.

“That!” Kira says, catching Cosima’s hand with both of hers. “Teach me?”

Cosima halts in confusion for a small moment - before a clear impression of _braids_ settles in her mind. “Oh! Of course monkey!” she replies, tilting her head in consideration for a moment. “I can try my best,” she smiles, wiggles her fingers in front of Kira’s nose. “Still a little clumsy.”

“If y’tangle her hair too badly, I suppose we can always shave the side of her head,” Sarah suggests, her grin a little too mischievous to be trusted, even by Cosima.

“We’re not gonna turn her into a mini-Sarah,” Cosima smacks Sarah on the leg as she unfolds herself into a standing position and brings Kira up with her.

“It was a _good look!_ ” Sarah protests again, as she quickly grabs Cosima’s other hand and kisses her palm as Cosima passes her. An image of a slouched-over Sarah in all black and smokey eyeliner, hair partially dyed blonde and shaved on one side, drifts into her mind’s-eye with the soft touch. Cosima briefly stops in her tracks as she closes her eyes, to savour the image because, well.. _damn._ “See?” Sarah says smugly, catching Cosima’s reaction in the glow along her cheeks, along with the slight tremor in her own chest.

“Whatever Manning,” Cosima rolls her eyes again, tweaking Sarah’s nose before finally following Kira into the bathroom. “Hey, awesome!” Cosima says as she spies the set-up that Kira has laid out on the countertop. “So where do you think we should start?”

“Well,” Kira starts, dragging the word out in her consideration, “I guess… Mum and S, they always brush my hair first.”

“Sounds good,” Cosima picks up the brush and stands behind Kira, using the mirror as her guide.

“But I wanna know how _you_ do it!” she pouts slightly, her cheeks puffing out in an adorable expression of disappointment. “Like you did just now!” She clenches her little fists as she squeezes her eyes shut, holding her breath and quivering slightly from the force of her will.

Cosima laughs as she sees Kira open her eyes after a few moments, expectantly gazing at her reflection before abruptly scowling when she finds it unchanged. “No fair!” she huffs, crossing her arms.

 _You should see her right now, Sar,_ she thinks, absently sending the thought across their connection. “Why don’t we start like this first,” Cosima suggests gently, starting to comb out the tangles, “And then maybe later you’ll be able to do it like me, okay?”

Kira considers this, lifting a hand up above her head and behind her so she can twirl Cosima’s locks around her fingers, black and gold twisting together. She turns her head so that she’s looking over her shoulder briefly, craning to see Cosima’s face. “Maybe,” she says seriously, like she’s weighing Cosima’s words and deeming them truthful. “Or… I dunno,” she shrugs.

Cosima brushes Kira’s hair silently for a few moments as Kira turns back to the mirror, the both of them studying each other’s reflections. Cosima kisses the top of Kira’s head when she catches her eye in the reflection. “What’s in your head, babes?” Cosima asks, Sarah’s pet names for her little girl falling easily from Cosima’s lips.

“I was thinking about you and mummy,” she says, twisting side to side for a moment as she thinks. “How she feels different. Like you. You’re different.”

Cosima places a gentle hand on Kira’s shoulder to still her as she finishes brushing out the ends of Kira’s hair. “You said that I felt weird, right?”

Kira starts to nod, then quickly stops herself as Cosima runs her fingers through her hair one last time. “But that’s different than how mummy feels. And how you two feel _together,_ ” she scrunches up her little nose, her forehead crinkling the same way that Sarah’s does when she’s trying to help Cosima learn about the constellations that litter her body.

“Tell me how I feel weird then,” Cosima encourages gently as she separates the hair into three parts. Cosima had already decided on a simple braid to start with - mostly because she was still learning the patterns herself.

“It’s like… I used to see you all the time,” Kira starts slowly, “In my dreams, you were… shinier. And a lot, lot bigger. And like, you sang _all_ the time.”

“How long have you been dreaming about me, Kira?” Cosima asks quietly, awe colouring her voice, the freckles across her forehead lighting up in a thin band just below her hairline.

“I dunno,” she says easily, but there’s weight to it, like it’s a final statement. “A long time, I guess. When mum bought the telescope, I think.”

Cosima starts plaiting Kira’s hair together without remembering that she actually needs to _teach_ Kira, this new information spinning through her mind, sending cascading emotions raining down her skin like falling fireworks. Her hands pause as she feels out for Sarah, nudging their connection with a question. _Kira’s telescope?_

Sarah returns the thought easily, and Cosima can feel her lift herself out of her conversation with Mrs. S momentarily. _Got her a toy one when she was like, two. A real one a little later._ A pause. Then, _S says it was her idea._ Cosima could just _feel_ the eyeroll.

“You’re talking to mummy, aren’t you?” Kira sighs, slightly exasperated.

Cosima jolts slightly, looking back into the mirror at Kira, grinning sheepishly at being discovered. “What gave it away?”

“You’re different again,” Kira explains, her expression resigned, but still happy. “Are you done?”

Cosima smacks herself internally for getting distracted so easily - _can’t blame you_ (Sarah) - and turns back to Kira. “Sorry Kira,” she smiles, “I’m gonna teach you now, ‘kay?”

“It’s a nice different though,” Kira tells her, turning as Cosima rests her hands on Kira’s shoulders. “Mummy was sad a lot before.”

Cosima lets that thought rest - because it was something that, little by little, Sarah had been opening up to her about - and ruffles Kira’s hair. “But not anymore!”

“No, of course not,” Kira giggles, “She has you!” She wraps her arms around Cosima’s middle and presses into her, squeezing with as much strength as her little body could muster.

“Oh but she has you too, little monkey!” Cosima laughs too, carefully bending down to scoop Kira up in her arms and bounce her slightly as Kira locks her feet behind Cosima’s back. She ducks her head down to blow a raspberry kiss on Kira’s cheek, “Right? She’s got us both!”

Kira laughs and laughs and laughs as Cosima attacks her with little kisses and loud raspberry ones and nose nuzzles until they’re both out of breath and somehow collapsed on the floor, giggling.

Which is where Sarah finds them a little while later, brushes and combs and hair ties strewn around them like a battlefield. “Looks like you two had fun,” Sarah smiles, and just the sight of her sets Cosima aglow with joy.

“We totally did,” Cosima pats the floor and Sarah sinks down to join them amidst the wreckage. “Kira never ended up learning how to do a braid though.”

“You didn’t?!” Sarah exclaims in faux-shock, “Cos, how dare you, makin’ a promise y’couldn’t keep now?”

Cosima lifts her hands defensively. “We were _bonding,_ Sarah, you can’t put that kind of thing on a schedule or like, whatever.”

“Well I want in then,” Sarah says, scooting closer and holding the hairbrush aloft to Cosima. “I dunno how to braid either,” she explains simply.

“Oh?” Cosima pauses, thinking for a moment. She pulls the image of Sarah’s side-shave into her mind, allows herself a moment of pride as her glow remains under control, as an idea forms. “Sarah, what do you think…,” she raises her hand, closes her eyes in concentration, “Of this?”

Even before Cosima opens her eyes she feels Sarah’s reaction as Cosima’s freckles start flaring due to the strength of Sarah’s response. “Uh… yeah Cos. That’s…. Good,” Sarah clears her throat.

Kira shuffles herself on the floor so that she’s more settled between her mum and her aunt, and reaches out to run her fingers over the new braid that has appeared on one side of Cosima’s head, along her temple and just above and behind her ear. “Can you do that yourself?” she asks, wiggling a finger in between the different sections of hair woven together.

“Definitely not,” Cosima laughs, “I’m not sure it even has a name here? I was just… inspired,” she finishes softly, looking over Kira’s head into Sarah’s eyes.

Kira falls over into Cosima’s lap with an yet another exasperated groan. “Auntie Co-o-si-i-ma!” she pushes a fist into Cosima’s stomach a couple times, “I know you love mummy, like, a lot, but I just want to learn how to braid my hair please?”

Sarah and Cosima both laugh, their combined embarrassment lighting up the freckles on Cosima’s cheeks. “Okay, you’re right, you’re _absolutely_ right monkey,” Cosima nods definitively. She turns to Sarah, her expression falling to mock-seriousness. “Sarah? You heard your daughter. There’s work to be done here.”

Sarah stands, snaps her hand to her forehead in a mock salute before nodding sharply. “As you wish, your majesties,” she barks, then turns on her heel and marches away.

Kira giggles, shaking her head at their antics. “You two are so _weird_ ,” she says.

“Different weird?” Cosima asks.

“No,” Kira laughs, handing Cosima the hairbrush again and gathering up some hair ties, “Just _weird_ weird.”

 


End file.
